OXFORD 



very small — three feet eleven inches high by 

 two feet wide. Additional interest attaches to 

 this detail of the building by the fact that the 

 original outer door remains, secured by two 

 strong locks; and, further, that there is a second 

 inner door, flush with the inside surface of the 

 wall. This doubling of the doors, a fairly fre- 

 quent feature of the Scottish dovecotes, is less 

 often seen in English instances. 



Unsuitable as the shape seems forthe intro- 

 duction of a potence, one was nevertheless 

 present till a few years since, when it was re- 

 moved, the beam being preserved. Pigeons, 

 too, nested here till recently. More than three 

 hundred nests were built into the walls, while 

 several dozen others were of wood. 



Parsonage House is known to have been 

 rebuilt in the reign of Anne, but the dovecote 

 is probably coeval with an older house. 



At the Hall, Kiddington, near Woodstock, 

 is a circular stone dovecote, over twenty feet 

 in diameter, having three dormer windows and 

 a lantern in the roof. Several hundred L- 

 shaped nests are still in place, furnished with 

 alighting-ledges. There is also a potence. The 



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